"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw." --Hamlet, Act II, scene ii.

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Bad cycling: I get round in 27:45

Following my New Year's Day adventures, I haven't done as much bike racing as I hoped I would this year. I was away In Norway all of June for work, and then the Stockport Clarion evening time-trials took a break during July. However, the last three Monday evenings I've been out on the Chelford 10-mile course, in an attempt to get some race fitness for next week's hill climb on the Cat and Fiddle. My aim was to get under 28 minutes for 10 miles, which is pretty modest. After a horrible day in the first event, where I was recovering from a migraine and should probably have stayed at home, I clocked 29:30 and wasn't optimistic. But the following week was better with 28:24, and last night I cracked it, just about, with 27:45. For the first time in these 10s, there were actually a couple of people slower than me. It was a good night, dry and sunny with a light headwind on the slightly longer outward leg, and times were generally fast-ish. There was a 21-minute ride, which is pretty quick for such a slow course.

Coming into Chelford on the homeward leg, there was an electronic sign that gives a read-out of your speed. I was grovelling up the slight incline at a bare 21 mph, so the days when I could get under 25 minutes seem long ago. One of the other riders went through at 27 mph. Still, I felt good, and I'm looking forward to the Cat and Fiddle next week.

5 comments:

Well, I entered my second half century (of age!) having decided to get a grip on my training this year, and ending up doing my best times at 10, 25 and 50 miles since 2002!Secret is I started training at 6am instead of waiting till I got home from work (which has been later and later in recent years

That's my best time since at least 1999, I'd have to check...but I did have 10 years of not racing in between then and now...

I've thought about getting up early for training, but I'm not much of an early riser. Although I do get up early to go swimming in winter. The problem I can foresee is that it would give me an excuse to eat more fried breakfasts.

Day job...

Fieldwork in Egypt

Welcome to Hawk/Handsaw...

This is the blog of Paul Wilson. You can find science- and pseudoscience-related things here, as well as occasional posts on my current research. There is also some stuff about what I do in my spare time (mostly cycling and complaining about politics).